• Journal of Digital Contents Society
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.849-869
• /
• 2015

Since South Korean government pushed ahead with decentralization system in 1990s, each local government has developed 'local government's character' so that communication between local residents and between local government and residents could be going well for rural solidarity. Local governments have designed their sole symbolic characters, applied the characters to local specialities and tourist goods, and used the designed characters for the promotion of area. There is no difference between South Korea and Japan in the function of local government's character as above-mentioned details. However, 'Yuru-chara' characters which are designed by local governments in Japan are rising dramatically in the field of Japanese major characters. 'Yuru-chara' characters' name awareness is expanded to the entire area of Japan as well as the designed area. A remarkable difference in how to promote character rather than character design caused such a successful outcome. The local governments in Japan carried out a promotion for local residents in various, friendly, and active ways, utilized local government's character as a way to publicize the image of area, and turned the character into products to bring additional effects. In the above process, there was a remarkable difference between Japan and South Korea. The purpose of this study was to research detail data related to the characters of the local governments in Japan, to analyze the promotion of the characters, and to suggest a strategy for promoting the characters of the local governments in South Korea.